A wide variety of brackets for mounting plumbing pipes, cables, conduits, wire bundles, etc. have been devised. Most such brackets are designed for attachment in a set configuration to a wall stud or other vertical support. Furthermore, known prior art brackets typically are designed to support plumbing pipes, cables, conduit, etc. exclusively in a single direction, i.e. either horizontally or vertically. A typical example of a prior art bracket is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,026 to Allen, and entitled WIRE SUPPORT APPARATUS. The bracket disclosed in the Allen patent includes a plate portion with through holes designed to accept mounting screws for attachment to a vertically oriented wall stud or the like. An elongate horizontal bracket portion extends outward from the plate portion and includes a series of slots extending through it from side to side and arrayed along its length with the slots accommodating wire clips for securing wires thereon. The bracket disclosed in the Allen patent is somewhat typical in that it is designed to support wires extending in a single direction, and is capable of attachment only to a wall or other solid surface.
It is clear, then, that a need exists for a universal pipe bracket which can be attached to a wall stud or other vertically oriented structure, to a plumbing waste pipe which extends either vertically or horizontally, or suspended from a horizontally oriented support. Such a universal pipe bracket should preferably support pipes extending in either horizontal or vertical orientations. Finally, such a pipe bracket should be usable with a variety of pipe clamp designs.